Italia Adventures!!: Travelmania Take Two!

We began our second travel week with a trip to Germany - a country I absolutely HAD to visit at least once before going home. Because we only had a couple days to spend in Germany, we decided to just do one city which ended up being Munich. This turned out to be a great choice because not only were we able to visit the nearby Neuschwanstein Castle (a place we had heard amazing things about!) but we were also able to do the one thing I knew I needed to do before leaving Europe - visit a concentration camp.

So, on the first day of our travels, we took the train to Dachau - the first camp ever established by the Nazi's and the one closest to Munich. It might have been one of the most eye-opening experiences I've ever had and I know that how I felt being there is something I will never forget. We walked through the whole camp and got to see and hear about each part - it was one of the most informative places I've ever been. And, as it turned out, going there first was one of the best decisions of the trip because it really made me crave normalcy and appreciate the rest of the trip so much more.

After we finished at Dachau, we were ready to just experience something completely different so we spent the rest of the day exploring Munich. Walking through the streets just looking at all of the beautiful buildings in the Old Town area, eating lots of delicious German food, and enjoying the wonderful weather really made the rest of the day very enjoyable. I think my favorite part was definitely hanging out in the Hofbrauhous which is the largest beer hall in Munich. We sat with a table of half Americans and half bachelor-party-celebrating German guys and as you can imagine that combined with the rest of the massive crowd of people made the atmosphere ridiculously fun!

As I mentioned above, the other big thing we wanted to do while we were there was visit the Neuschwanstein Castle which is what we did the second day. This is located a couple hours from Munich so we got to experience even more of Germany on the beautiful train ride. When we arrived, it was sort of like seeing a fairy tale come to life. The castle is exactly what I always picture when I think of Disney and fairy tales - it was incredible! We were able to take a bus up the mountain and then hike to a nearby bridge that crossed over a valley and offered a perfect view of Neuschwanstein. I think the view and just the bridge in general was the best part - it was such an incredible sight that it even made the tour of the castle (which in itself was unbelievable!) pale in comparison!

A couple hours and a missed/wrong train disaster later, we arrived back in Munich. After grabbing more delicious German food that this time involved apple strudel (!!!) we felt like we had successfully conquered as much of the German culture possible in the 48 hours we had available. By the time we left super early the next morning on a bus, we were all set to see more of Europe which is exactly what we did in our next stop in Prague which I'll talk about next time!